Phil Heath took the bodybuilding world by storm in 2005 and 2006. Yet, amid all the praise for his various strengths—those arms, those lines, those round muscle bellies—there was always some mention of his greatest weakness: “Yeah, but can he ever get enough back size to win the Mr. Olympia?” After all, the Sandow Society is the domain of Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, and Ronnie Coleman, who, by the end of 2005, had collectively won 22 of the 41 Olympias, largely because they possessed the three greatest backs of their eras. Year after year, bodybuilding’s ultimate title was decided when those in the O’s first
call out unfurled their rear-lat spreads and locked in their rear double biceps.None of this was news to Heath. He heard “Yeah, but…” over and over again. He knew all about the backs of Mr. Os, including Jay Cutler, who, beginning in 2006, won four out of five Olympias with his hang-glider lats. So the Gift went about putting in the work needed to join them in the physique pantheon. The transformation of Heath’s back from a weakness to a strength has been one of the most dramatic alterations in bodybuilding history. When he won his first Showdown in 2011, the contest was decided the moment he crunched in his rear double biceps and gasps filled the Orleans Arena. And he hasn't rested on his laurels. With back masters Cutler and Kai Greene chasing him, he knows this year’s Olympia, like most every O of the past three decades, will be decided from the rear
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| Phil Heath Back |
